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With At the River's Bend, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer takes a look at what's going on in the political and government scene in Owensboro and Kentucky. Tune in to find out the latest news, happenings and political conversations that make this city and state such interesting places to live.

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Last week’s extended heat wave drove up electricity usage in Owensboro. Last Wednesday, when the temperature hit 95 degrees with high humidity keeping conditioners humming, OMU’s native load demand reached 192.4 megawatts, the peak so far for this year.
OMU’s all-time peak for local demand was set on Aug. 7, 2007, when it hit 203.4 megawatts. It was 99 degrees in Owensboro on that Tuesday.
But OMU customers weren’t just demanding a lot of electricity last week. They also used a lot of water. On Wednesday, the same day the electricity peak was set, OMU pumped 16.1 million gallons of water to its local customers and the Daviess County water districts it serves. That was this year’s peak for water usage.

Ben Hawes Golf Course and Park operates a fleet of 60 Yamaha gasoline-powered golf carts, built in 2005. As early as July, they will be gone, probably replaced by 72 new electric carts, course manager Chris Cary said Tuesday.

“We’ll start the bidding process this week, and we’ll probably go with electric,” he said.

Electric carts are less expensive to operate and quieter, Cary said. But they have to perform, he said.

“We want them to go 36 holes (without recharging) and be able to go up No. 7.”

The seventh hole has the steepest hill on the course.

Golfers will be seeing plenty of other changes at the course, which the city took over from the state this week. The pro shop will have much more golf merchandise, Cary said, including apparel. A bar and grill will be installed in the old house (former pro shop) near the putting green.

As for the course itself, some of the tee boxes will be lengthened to provide tees closer to the holes for players who prefer shorter distances. Walking bridges on the par-3 course will be repaired soon and both courses will be sprayed for mosquitoes.

The lights on the par-3 course will be turned on for the first time in about 10 years, as soon as they are repaired. Night play will be allowed until 10 p.m.